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Blackmail, a flight to Portugal, prison, and revelations about Raoul Bova and Alfonso Signorini are all explored in a new docuseries. The series also features Lele Mora, who discussed a relationship with Fabrizio Corona and purchasing eight cars and a house for him.
The five-part docuseries «Fabrizio Corona: I Am News» arrives on Netflix today, January 9th. The documentary delves into the life and career of the former “king of the paparazzi,” featuring interviews with a number of well-known figures – including his ex-wife Nina Moric, who famously calls him “a clown” in a clip from the trailer. Now 51, Corona has been a fixture in the Italian tabloids for two decades, initially in the gossip columns and later in the courts.
Who is Fabrizio Corona?
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Corona was born in Catania on March 29, 1974, and has two brothers, Francesco and Federico. His parents are Vittorio Corona and Gabriella Previtera. Vittorio was the son of Aurelio Corona, a lead reporter for the Catania newspaper La Sicilia, and the brother of Puccio Corona, a journalist and host on RAI television. This family history in media would prove influential in Fabrizio’s own career path.
Vittorio, who earned a degree in Philosophy, joined Rizzoli, worked for Novella 2000, and became deputy director of the weekly Annabella. After a brief return to Sicily at Telecolor, he moved back to Milan and became deputy director of Amica before joining RAI in 1983. In 1991, he was hired by Emilio Fede as deputy director of Studio Aperto.
Speaking about his father in 2023 on «Domenica in», Fabrizio said, «He was very different from me. Wherever I go, I don’t meet anyone who doesn’t say: ‘Your father was a great man, your father was incorruptible, he was the best.’ People say the opposite about me. We have two things in common: creativity and genius.»
Meeting Lele Mora
While his father sought the truth, Fabrizio was interested in business, alongside celebrity manager Lele Mora (also appearing in the Netflix docuseries), whom he first met in 1997: «Three days after we met – Corona himself recounted – he put me on a TV show, where I made a lot of money.» The partnership would prove pivotal in Corona’s rise to fame and notoriety.
During questioning by Milanese prosecutors in connection with the collapse of Corona’s agency, Mora stated, «I had a relationship with Fabrizio Corona, I spent about two million euros on him between 2004 and 2006.» Mora also revealed that in 2005, «the big fights between Corona and Moric began, after she discovered the existence of my relationship with him, something I had always denied and which emerged during the Vallettopoli investigation. During that period, Corona was often kicked out of the house and asked me for hospitality. I had advised him to get a place of his own. I had also told him that I would help him financially, and I did.»
According to Lele Mora, he purchased «eight cars for Corona, starting with an Audi Cabriolet and going up to a Bentley Continental. He also bought the apartment – he added – in Via de Cristoforis in Milan, or rather, I provided Corona with about 1.5 million euros in cash.»
The Paparazzo Without a Camera
Fabrizio founded the Corona’s photographic agency in 2001. Quickly gaining popularity, he became known as the “king of the paparazzi” (despite repeatedly stating that he never took a photo himself). The agency’s aggressive tactics and high-profile targets quickly made Corona a controversial figure.
In 2009, he participated in the Canale 5 reality show «La Fattoria» (but was eliminated in the third episode, leading to the show’s cancellation) and appeared in Erik Gandini’s documentary film «Videocracy – Just Appear»: Corona contributed as a «paradigmatic figure of videocracy and the loss of social values.»
A year later, he made a cameo appearance in the fiction series «Squadra antimafia – Palermo oggi» playing a mafia hitman.
Arrest and Flight to Portugal
Corona’s life – and celebrity – has been marked by several legal proceedings. In 2013, his flight to Portugal, after traveling through France and Spain by car, made headlines when a five-year prison sentence was finalized for “photo-blackmail” against French soccer player David Trezeguet. The case captivated the Italian public.
The Court of Cassation upheld the sentence handed down by the Turin Court of Appeal on January 16, 2012, which had increased the original sentence of three years and four months. Corona was convicted of aggravated extortion and unlawful data processing. The legal battle began during the investigation led by prosecutor John Woodcock, known as “Vallettopoli.”
The Trezeguet incident dates back to the spring of 2006. After a Juventus victory, the striker went to Milan to celebrate at several clubs. He met a woman and followed her home, unaware that he was being followed by one of Corona’s agency photographers, who took 25 pictures of him entering the apartment and another 21 of him leaving the next morning. Corona then contacted him proposing a “trade.”
Prison, House Arrest, Therapy (and Freedom)
Fabrizio Corona was released on September 23, 2023, after more than ten years spent between prison, house arrest, and therapeutic community for addiction treatment, due to a cumulative sentence for crimes of extortion, corruption, tax fraud, and bankruptcy. «They put me in jail six times, but I’m still here,» Corona stated.
«The first real investigation took everything from me and took a lot from the world of gossip, those newspapers closed or are doing badly. I had to reinvent myself, creating a character and going against the system, and I paid for it, but that allowed me to have 20 employees, bring work to many people, be a great entrepreneur, while those who were part of that world, first and foremost Lele Mora, ended up ruined.»
Personal Life
From Croatian model Nina Moric, Corona has a son, Carlos Maria, 23. From 2009 to 2012, he was in a relationship with showgirl and Argentine model Belén Rodríguez, and from 2015 to 2018, he dated Silvia Provvedi, one half of the duo Donatella. He is currently engaged to model Sara Barbieri, who is 27 years his junior, and they have another son, Thiago, born in December 2024.
“Falsisissimo,” Fedez and Raoul Bova
In 2024, Corona launched «Falsissimo», his new program on YouTube. And once again, legal consequences followed. Corona was responsible for releasing content exchanged on the cell phone between Raoul Bova and Martina Ceretti, obtained from Federico Monzino, prompting the Italian Data Protection Authority to grant a request from Bova’s lawyers, his former mother-in-law Annamaria Bernardini de Pace, and David Leggi, to prohibit reproduction and dissemination.
Corona also released audio recordings between Fedez and Angelica Montini, a Milanese stylist and entrepreneur, allegedly having an extramarital affair with the rapper from Rozzano (Fedez requested a warning from the Milan police against Corona for “persecutory acts”).
Selvaggia Lucarelli’s Complaint
In January 2024, Selvaggia Lucarelli filed a complaint against Corona for defamation. «Corona began to address her with unrepeatable words – her lawyer, Barbara Indovina, told Corriere –. Since then, in just over a year, Selvaggia has received hundreds of messages from people (often very young) who address her with the same words through messages, videos with laughter, on all social media channels: posting the insult has become permissible, this hateful content has gone viral. In the last three days, death threats have arrived.»
There are a total of eight complaints. «The investigations are underway – added lawyer Indovina. – If the insult and contempt become an obsession and a daily practice accompanied by threats, in my opinion and also for Jurisprudence, this constitutes stalking.»
The Signorini Case
Most recently, just weeks before the release of the Netflix series, Corona publicly accused Alfonso Signorini, editorial director of «Chi» and former host of «Big Brother», of mismanaging the selection of contestants for the reality show: «If you don’t go to bed with him, you don’t get on Big Brother», Corona claimed, before going into detail about what he called the «Signorini system», identifying flirts and alleged sexual relationships as «The Price of Success», the title of an episode of «Falsissimo».
Corona’s revelations refer to the accusations made by TikToker and model Antonio Medugno, born in 1998, launched on TV by Maria De Filippi’s «Uomini e Donne» and then, three years later, on «Grande Fratello Vip». Signorini is now under investigation for extortion and sexual violence by the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office following a complaint filed by Medugno and has temporarily stepped down from Mediaset. Corona is also under investigation, after Signorini filed a complaint against him, on charges of revenge porn. Signorini’s lawyers have sent letters to major web and social media platforms requesting the blocking and obscuring of Corona’s reconstructions: «They are illegitimate and tarnish his reputation.»
